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The Duckworth Chant, Sound Off, & the Jody:
Origins and Evolution, 1944-1952

Michael A. Cavanaugh
michaelacavanaugh@earthlink.net
www.home.earthlink.net/~michaelacavanaugh
permission to cite (with appropriate credit to the above) freely granted
draft current as of Jan. 2006, supercedes all previous versions
material in preparation for history of Davids’ Island & Fort Slocum, NY

On the internet as elsewhere one encounters the claim that at Ft. Slocum, NY in
March 1944, a Black soldier, Pvt. Willie Lee Duckworth Sr., RA34758119 (1924-2004)
invented “Sound Off,” aka “the Duckworth chant,” origin of the modern “Jody Call”
jogging & marching cadence used even today in the U.S. Army; and that this was taken
up and enthusiastically promoted by then post C.O., Col. Bernard Lentz (1881-1961,
USMA 1905), already known since 1918 (and later in various editions) for his book The
Cadence System of Teaching Close Order Drill . 1

This claim, if true, would be interesting, in that it would link this historic former
post in Long Island Sound just off New Rochelle with an enduring Army tradition.

One also encounters the claim that the origin of the Jody in Duckworth’s chant at
Fort Slocum is but a modem urban legend: that call-and-response work songs or
chanteys were long used by agricultural laborers, seamen, chain-gang members and
gandy dancers; that the phrase “Sound Off’ predates 1944 (as the title of a collection of
songs edited by Edward Arthur Dolph in 1924, reissued in 1942; and even appears as the
legend on a WWI-era postcard from Fort Slocum itself); that there is a long history of
drill in the U.S. Army and before that, that “count off your numbers loud and strong”
appears in Maj. Edmund L. Gruber’s 1907 “Caisson Song;” that the Duckworth chant
resembles popular songs like “Hey Ladee Ladee Lo;” even that Duckworth was a Tin Pan
Alley singer who ripped off Col. Lentz. 2 (The weirdest one is, "In WWII, black troops
were, apparently, given more freedom of self-expression than were white troops. Fancy
drill teams, particularly from Fort Duckworth, Alabama, toured and popularized jazzier
cadence counts"

1 According to the author’s preface to the 4th edition (Harrisburg, PA: Telegraph Press, 1940), the first
version was mimeographed by the War Department General Staff in 1918, and a version published later
that year in the Infantry Journal as “The Minutiae of Close Order Drill.” Editions of the book version
continued into the 1950’s; later editions incorporated Duckworth’s chant.

2 This last interpretation appears in an obituary of Lentz apparently published in a local Westchester County
newspaper. (It is without date or attribution — though Lentz died 13 Dec. 1961 — but is found in the
vertical files of the New Rochelle Public Library.) However the truth of such an interpretation seems most
improbable. Duckworth was drafted from rural Georgia late in 1943 at the age of 19; by one account he
had never before travelled 100 miles from home, and transfer to Ft. Slocum was the only thing that brought
him close to New York. Thereafter he went to the Pacific; after his discharge in 1947 he lived the rest of
his life back home in rural Georgia, working in the pulp industry.

[http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiSOUNDOFF;ttSOUNDOFF.html].
Surely this tale “loses something in the original;” though perhaps mythical "Fort
Duckworth, AL" as a sort of WWII Grambling would render some measure of poetic
justice . . . ?)

Where lies the truth?

The evidence is complex; but I have read most of the primary sources, as well as
background material, and listened to the early recorded versions; and here is my
interpretation.

There were only about 8 Black soldiers at Slocum, segregated; one officer
claimed it was impossible to drill them, and the responsibility was handed to recent
draftee Pvt. Duckworth, on detached service with the Provisional Training Center (PTC).
Marching back with about 200 soldiers from bivouac at Ardsley, 13 miles away,
Duckworth made up the chant. Back on post, it caught on. Col. Lentz heard it,
summoned Duckworth, who by one account explained that it came from calling hogs in
his Washington Co., GA, home; in another, that he just made it up in his head. Lentz, a
minor songwriter in his own right (whose compositions include “Don’t Bother Father
When He’s at the Bar”), either commanded, or approved, its use on post. Slocum had an
active band during WWII, and its musicians (or in another account, the PTC staff)
worked the Duckworth chant into Sound Off — indeed, if anyone was exploited in the
process, it may have been the musicians of this anonymous band! The music and lyrics
were then copyrighted jointly in 1950 by Lentz and Duckworth with Lentz’ NYC
publisher Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. (ASCAP considers that royalties are due to the
writers of “Sound Off’ from Jodies used in military-themed films such as Battleground,
Sound Off!, Private Benjamin, An Officer and a Gentleman, Full Metal Jacket — and
also such non-military films as The Ice Age, The Dead Poets Society, and Bruce
Almighty. To the end of his days Willie Duckworth continued receiving royalties, and
his widow Edna Duckworth does to this day; and so do the heirs of Col. Lentz.)
According to one version, Duckworth and Lentz between them wrote 23 verses. “Sound
Off’ was recorded on an unnumbered 1945 V-Disc at Slocum by two Rehabilitation
Classes under the direction of S/Sgt. Henry C. Felice and Pvt. James Tyus, and by the
WAC detachment under the direction of S/Sgt. Gladys M. Woodard. Its first cinematic
appearance was in the 1949 Academy Award winner, Battleground. The published 1950
version was recorded by bandleader Vaughn Monroe in 1951, and featured in the 1952
Blake Edwards film “Sound Off’ starring Mickey Rooney. Col. Lentz incorporated it
into later editions of his book.

What then is the relationship among Duckworth, Lentz, and the modem Jody?
First, the published 1950 “Sound Off’ has a definite link to the Jody, in that there is a
verse about a civilian stealing a soldier’s girlfriend; except that (in one of two versions)
the civilian is named “Alvin” not “Jody.” One of the earliest recorded versions, 1945,
has either “Shorty” or “Jody” back home when the soldier left (though other early
versions clearly have “Jody”), though neither Shorty nor Jody has yet got your girl much
less your Cadillac. But the improvisation that continues in the later developed Jody is

just the point of the Duckworth chant: make it up as you go along. Eskimos, GI grits,
My Recruiter, Viet Cong, C-130s, whatever. There is also in both 1945 & 1950 versions
the call-and-response [Sound Off (one-two) Sound Off (three-four)] that continues in
later decades, though as we shall see this too is subject to a process of development.

Second, the Duckworth chant is not simply an interpretation of Lentz’ cadence
system. But there is a relationship.

Lentz’ cadence system required the troops actively to voice the drill commands,
not just passively obey the drillmaster. 3 But in no sense are these commands improvised;
they are always the stock commands of the official Infantry Drill Regulations (such that
when, as for instance in 1939, the IDR were changed, Lentz needed to revise his book
accordingly). The drillmaster would announce the command; the troops would vocalize
it together as they executed. Lor example (one of the examples used by Lentz himself 4 ),
the drillmaster would say: “The squad will execute right shoulder arms, face to the right,
and move off. COMMAND.” On hearing “COMMAND,” the troops themselves would
then BOTH command themselves , AND execute, the following: “Right shoulder, ARMS
(1,2,3,4); Right, LACE (1,2); Lorward, MARCH.”

Once the command was given to march (either in the traditional way or the Lentz
way) the Duckworth chant might commence. So they might work well together, but the
one was not just the same as the other.

The link between Lentz’ system and the Duckworth chant lies in the fact that
Lentz was a military psychologist, of a virtually Durkheimian stripe: he wanted troops to
internalize the commands in order simultaneously to increase their sense of personal
responsibility and also their coordination in a single purpose 5 ; in a sense, he originated

3 There is a prehistory to this. Lentz credits Lt/Col. Herman J. Koehler (1859-1927), USMA instructor and
Army football coach, reputed father of Army PT training, with devising the basic idea “of having all men
in ranks give commands in unison” (4 th edn., preface).

4 Ibid., p. 2.

5 “Under this system . . . (e)ach man becomes his own drillmaster. He develops that foundation of
assurance, ‘p e P,’ and confidence in his voice which must of necessity underlie true eligibility for the
noncommissioned grades” (4 th edn., p. 1). Of course this is not quite Every Man His Own Jesus. Nor is it
even Management by Objectives. But it does partake of the basic modern sociological insight (Weber
might also be mentioned along with Durkheim) that in the 20 th c., leaders can no longer simply play King
Canute and issue commands without some consideration of motivational issues among rank and file. To
put it another way, the intention was that drill not be simply imposed chickenshit; or, perhaps, to make
every man his own chickenshit factory?

the notion of an Anny of One. 6 He would of course have been delighted to discover a
Duckworth, a private who motivated the troops bottom-up rather than top-down.

There was a sociological as well as a psychological side to all this. Apart from
Lentz’ own predisposition, correspondence between him and his superior, MajVGen.
Charles C. Gross, Chief of Transportation, shows that they were concerned morale was
slack among the rear-echelon, support troops of the Anny Service Forces (such as served
at Ft. Slocum) and actively attempted to promote soldierly pride in these troops 7 , so that
the appearance of the spontaneous and spontaneously-embraced Duckworth chant would
have seemed a timely shot-in-the-ann from a command point of view. And the War
Department generally spread its use during the war. Actually the Jody would seem
simpler than the Lentz Cadence System since in the former there is less self-reliance and
more simply following the lead of the drillmaster. However Lentz’ cadence system
without Duckworth’s chant would never have produced the Jody.

So it seems the safe thing to say that Duckworth did not just conjure the Jody out
of thin air. The Duckworth chant and Sound Off however were a genuine innovation,
one that led directly to the contemporary Jody; Lentz and the command facilitated it such
that without command support, Sound Off would not have caught on at Slocum, nor
would the Jody have spread throughout the Army. 8 Likewise without bottom-up
enthusiasm from troops, Jody Calls would not be heard today except on a 1945 V-disc.
It is therefore appropriate to credit Pvt. Willie Lee Duckworth, Sr., of Sandersville,
Washington Co., GA, with introducing at Ft. Slocum in 1944, bottom-up, the marching
cadence “Sound Off’ that evolved also bottom-up into the modem Jody Call.

I don’t know, but I’ve been told . . .

Exactly what did the first Duckworth chant sound like? Alas Alan Lomax did
not lug a tape recorder along on that cold March bivouac. I wanted to ask Pvt.
Duckworth himself but this is now impossible. The original oral tradition clearly
underwent later musical shaping as well as literary redaction. So the fixed fonns are at
some remove from the original, and even from subsequent troop improvisation. Still an

6 This early 21 st -century recruiting slogan is not just superficial, but points up a perennial problem in
military motivation, how to reconcile initiative and authority, one that the U.S. Army has certainly faced
and continues to do. See the interesting discussion in Stephen Ambrose, D-Day (Simon & Schuster, 1994),
pp. 339 ff, of how an invading American force decimated of officers and cut off from higher command
breached the enemy defenses by those at the pay-grade of NCO’s and company-grade officers, and in
some cases privates, taking initiative — in accordance with training and doctrine — while their opponents
were paralyzed (up to the level of general officers, in the absence of top-down instructions) by the
Fiihrerprinzip. Cf. also Edward M. Coffman, The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941
(Harvard, 2004), pp. 390-391, citing Patton: “Trained men can take action without orders from above,
because they know what they are doing.;” who likewise said, “If you tell people where to go, but not how
to get there, you'll be amazed at the results.” Coffman’s point is that the U. S. Army officer corps had
been systematically imbued with this spirit since the turn of the century.

7 Cf. discussion and correspondence cited in Chester Wardlow, The U.S. Army in World War II: The
Technical Services, The Transportation Corps: Movements, Training and Supply (Washington, DC:
Office of the Chief of Military History, 1956), p. 426.

8 Of course commanders have tried to break it as well as make it; on some posts it has been prohibited, and
in general the scatological versions get toned down in response to command pressure.

examination of the earliest fixed oral, literary and cinematic forms reveals an interesting
evolution. And the very first recorded forms, in 1945, are of actual troops, not of actors
or other professional entertainers.

Although the tenns “Duckworth chant,” “Sound Off,” and “Jody” often are used
interchangeably, some have expressed puzzlement as to just when the character of Jody
appeared, and have drawn a contrast between the original Duckworth chant and the
contemporary Jody. 9 Although to my knowledge no one else has ever suggested this, it
looks like the name Jody goes back extremely early (to the first printed, and recorded,
versions to emerge from Ft. Slocum in 1944-1945); though the name may be an elision
of “Shorty.” We don’t know if it goes back to Duckworth himself in March 1944. But
the name Jody (or Shorty) only develops over time into the nefarious character Jody, the
draft-dodger who stayed back home to get the soldier’s girl, mama, sister, and car.

I. Sound Off (The Duckworth Chant)

The first fixed version, in three styles, oral;

Attributed to Pvt. Willie Duckworth
Recorded on unnumbered V-Disc 1945

A Side: S/Sgt. Henry Felice & the Rehabilitation Center Class, Fort

Slocum

The first fixed version of Sound Off, this must have been produced during or after
the first quarter of 1945. S/Sgt. (later T/Sgt) Henry C. “Jack” Felice was a drillmaster
with the Provisional Training Center Detachment at Fort Slocum during WWII. 10

A brief sketch of the main activities on Ft. Slocum during WWII might be in
order. Before WWII, the post had been an Overseas Staging Area (OSA) for troops
being sent overseas to the Philippines and the Canal Zone. As the war began it
continued this role for troops being shipped over to the European Theater of Operations
(ETO) through the New York Port of Embarkation (NYPOE). These OSA troops just
passed through and did not stop to receive training on post.

Fort Slocum did also serve, early in the war, to provide basic training; for
instance Henry Felice himself graduated from basic recruit training there in Feb. 1943. In
his introduction to the 1951 edition of Lentz’ book, Maj/Gen. Homer M. Groninger,
commander of NYPOE, asserts that “all important training projects pertaining to my
command were concentrated at Fort Slocum.” From Oct. 1942 to Oct. 1944 under the
auspices of the Atlantic Coast Transportation Corps Officers’ Training School
(ACTCOTS), Ft. Slocum provided instruction for transportation specialists, such as

9 E.g., Sandee Shatter Johnson, Cadences: The Jody Call Book, No. 1 (Canton, OH: Daring Press,
1983), p. 14: “No one seems to know for certain when the “Duckworth Chant” or “Sound Off’ became
known as the “Jody Call” or “Jodies.”

10 Lentz says of him, in the 1951 edition: “Mr. Henry Felice, professional dancer of New York City, . . .
was a master sergeant and outstanding drill master at Fort Slocum, N.Y. during World War II” (p. 73).

railroad men, quickly commissioned as company-grade officers but lacking basic military
training and orientation. And then there was the Provisional Training Center
Detachment (PTC). As the war shifted from defense to offense, and as more of the Anny
was being moved from support roles and from Stateside to overseas, the PTC aimed to
hone the physical conditioning and basic military skills of those who had been office
workers (“Provisional Training Center New Training Beehive,” CN 13 January 1944 pp.
1, 6; “Reassignment for Many Soldiers; Majority of One Year Men to Go,” CN 15
February 1944, pp. 1, 18).

The earliest narration (on the 1945 V-Disc itself) says that Duckworth was on
detached service with the Provisional Training Center, and that he was marching back
fonn bivouac with about 200 men. Those classes began 1 Dec. 1943 to provide basic
training for troops from posts in the greater New York area. The first course lasted 7
weeks. The second class was extended to 11 weeks, which began 1 Feb. 1944 (and
therefore would have lasted through March, the time during which Duckworth invented
his chant). It comprised about 200 men (same as the number reported) and also
involved a bivouac. 11

As the war wound down, and as ACTCOTS was unable to provide needed
technical training in addition to basic military orientation, the transportation school was
phased out. (Likewise, its Pacific coast twin at Camp Stoneman, CA.) Eventually troops
would not been added in large numbers overseas. Fort Slocum floundered about,
seeking a new role. The post was placed under the Second Area Service Command, and
(despite vehement opposition by local interests) was chosen late in 1944 as a center for
the rehabilitation of American soldiers convicted by court-martial. Rehabilitation classes
began early in 1945, and continued through 1946, at which time this activity too wound
down and Fort Slocum was considered for closure. Some wanted it to become veterans’
housing. The head of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves — whose father-in-
law incidentally had been post commander 1904-06 — briefly considered it for the site
of a nuclear research facility in conjuction with Columbia University, but chose instead
the former Camp Upton at Yaphank on Long Island — incidentally where Irving Berlin
originated his soldier show in WWI, “Yip Yip Yaphank” —which was in the interest of
better public relations given the more felicitous name “Brookhaven.” Nonetheless Fort
Slocum was not closed; the Army Air Corps took it over. HQ 1 st AF moved over from
Mitchel Field on Long Island, and eventually it became Slocum AFB — the only
USAFB in history reachable routinely not by air but only by boat. The Army took it back
in 1950, abandoned it one last time in 1965, and it has since been ruined by vandals and
fire. But that is another story.

"Part of the six-week training for the transportation officers also involved a bivouac. The average number
of students per ACTCOTS course was 118; in fact, the 12 th class which ran from 6 March to 15 April 1944
enrolled 111 7 ; and likely there would have been additional people such as school staff and other support
troops. Thus it is altogether possible (although this is nowhere attributed) that the reported 200 troops
returning from the March 1944 bivouac (during which the Duckworth chant emerged) involved troops from
the ACTCOTS program. Almost surely such a bivouac did not involve the OSA troops, who were rushed
through on the average in 14 days in groups of 300-500.

So this first fixed version of the Duckworth Chant let by S/Sgt. Felice comes from
one of the court-martial rehabilitation classes mentioned above. But the chant was used
generally on post, and the B side (see below) was performed by the WAC unit. Only the
Felice version was remastered and released recently on CD-ROM. 12

The A side also includes an introductory narration, presumably by Sgt. Felice,
which represents the first account of how the chant came into being, ft asserts that the
chant arose

. . . from a long tedious march through swamps and rough country, a chant
broke the stillness of the night. Upon investigation, it was found that a
Negro soldier by the name of Willie Duckworth, on detached service with
the Provisional Training Center Fort Slocum, was chanting to build up the
spirits of his weary comrades, ft was not long before the infectious
rhythm was spreading through the ra nk s. Foot-weary soldiers started to
pack (sic) up their step in cadence with a growing chorus of hearty male
voices. Instead of a down-trodden, fatigued company, here marched 200
soldiers, with heads up, a spring to their step, and happy smiles on their
faces. This transformation occurred with the beginning of the
Duckworth chant. Upon returning to Fort Slocum, Private Duckworth,
with the aid of the Provisional Training Center instructors, composed a
series of verses and choruses to be used with the marching cadence. Since
that eventful evening, the Duckworth chant has been made a part of the
drill at Fort Slocum, as it has proved to be not only a tremendous morale
factor, while marching, but also coordinated a movement of close-order
drill with true {?troop?} precision.

Something is missing here. It should be noted that although this is the first
narrative of the origin of the Jody, nowhere is Col. Lentz mentioned. The first known
description of the Jody, however is earlier. It occurs in an article on p. 1 of the Fort
Slocum newspaper, the Casual News, for 21 Sept. 1944, announcing the graduation of
the 5 th Provisional Training Center class, where it is called simply “The . . . now famous
P.T.C. ‘Chant’,” no reference at all either to Pvt. Duckworth or to Col Lentz.

Here then are the lyrics of that first fixed version of the Duckworth Chant. (Here
as afterward the call is simply written; the response, enclosed in parentheses.)

“Horeward: HARCH!

Hup-hoop-hip-horp

The heads are up, the chests are out 13

12 Part of this version can be heard on the website http://www.ccmusic.com/itcm.clm?itcmid~CMP510452 .
It is the first track on the 3 rd disk. [No financial interest here, just for information.]

13 This line, by itself though repeated twice, appears as early as a memo dated 12 May 1942, Headquarters
Fort Slocum, “Tests for Candidates for Drill Master.” It also appeared in the Dec. 1943 classbook for
ACTCOTS, as the last line of a bit of doggerel called “Keep ‘Em Rolling.”

The arms are swinging; in cadence, count:

[Refrain]

Sound off (one, two!)

Sound off (three, four!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)
Eeny meeny miney moe 14
Let’s go back and count some mo’

[Refrain]

We will march to beat the band
And we’ll never bite The Hand, 15
[Refrain]

I had a good home but I left (you’re right!)

Jody 16 was there when you left (you’re right!)

Jody was there when you left (you’re right!) 17
[Refrain]

It won’t get by if it ain’t 18 GI
It won’t get by if it ain’t GI
[Refrain]

We will march with a broken leg
So we can get that Golden Egg 19
[Refrain]

14 Like the first line of the first stanza, this line too has an antecedent — somewhat ironic if you stop and
think about it.

15 This obscure reference alone would pinpoint this version to Fort Slocum in WWII. Col. Lentz’ pet story:
quoting Samuel Goldwyn’s characteristic malapropism, “Oh dem directors! They’re always biting the
hand that lays the golden egg,” Lentz would warn his listeners: “Gentlemen . . . 1 am the hand that lays the
golden egg. And my advice to you is don’t bite the hand that lays the golden egg'' (Cf. ACTCOTS class
book, August 1943 [New Rochelle: The Little Print] and other editions. This became proverbial on post;
The Hand became Lentz’ most common nickname.

16 At first hearing this sounded like “Shorty,” but in retrospect it sounds like “Jody.” Listening a third time
it is genuinely hard to tell. Perhaps Shorty was the origin of Jody? But here in the very first fixed
version! It is either one or the other. In the Woodard version it seems clearly Jody, and the Casual News
account prints it as “Jodie.”

17 Notice here, no refrain between the two verses; again below.

18 “ain’t” (sic); the post newspaper, the Casual News, offered [IV(1), 15 Feb. 1944, p. 7] “Slocum’s
Haircut Slogan:” If it isn’t G.I./It won’t get by.

19 See the above reference to Lentz and Goldwyn.

The Second 20 Platoon is just like Krauts 21
They’re all afflicted with the gout
[Refrain]

The Third Platoon can’t stand the [gaffe?]

Tryin’ to get ol’ [on? Blennett’s staff?] 22
[Refrain]

If I get shot in a combat zone
Just box me up and send me home, 23
[Refrain]

I had a good home but I left (you’re right!)

You had a good home but you left (you’re right!)

Jody was there when you left (you’re right!)

[Refrain]

I don’t mind to take a hike
If I could take along a bike 24
[Refrain]

I don’t mind a bivouac

20 So, what happened to the First Platoon? It does not appear here but in one version: “The First Platoon it
is the best, they always pass the Colonel’s tests.” But see the Woodard version, below.

21 The verse may say either “Kraut” or “Krout:” one of the instructors who began with the second PTC
class was Cpl. Francis Krout (aka Kraut).

22 This verse alas is perfectly obscure, both the actual phrasing and any conceivable sense. Cf. below, in a
later published version: “The Third Platoon can’t stand the gaff, Tryin’ to get old ‘Sarge’ a ‘staff,” still
doesn’t make much sense — unless perhaps at Slocum ca. 1944 there was a particular sergeant named
Bennett/Blennett? Though copyrighted 1950, this same later version repeats the verse about Krauts, and
Gravel Gertie (though it gives an alternate version too, see below).

23 This idea continues in later versions, cf. Battleground; in a more elaborate later version,

“If 1 die in a combat zone,

Box up my body & send me home,

Pin my medals upon my chest,

Tell my mama 1 done my best” (variant: “Bury me in the Leaning Rest”).

24 There are alternate verses, expressing envy of superiors getting it easy; though they don’t fit the cadence
rhythm, e.g.,

“The Captain rides in a jeep (you're right!)

The Sergeant rides in a truck (you're right!)

The General rides in a limousine (you're right!)

But your just out a luck (you're right! )”

Yet this scans quite differently, that is,

A (B)

C(B)

D (B)

E(B).

If I could take along a WAC
[Refrain]

I don’t mind if I get dirty
As long as the Brow gets Gravel Gertie 25
[Refrain]

The WACs and WAVEs will win the war
So tell us what we’re fighting for 26
[Refrain]

I had a good home but I left (you’re right!)

I had a good home but I left (you’re right!)
Jody was there when you left (you’re right!)
Jody was there when you left (you’re right!)
[Refrain]

Gump’knee, HALT!”

B Side Cut 1: S/Sgt Gladys M. Woodard & the WACs

On the original V-Disc, but not transcribed to digital fonn, is a distinctive WAC
version of the Duckworth chant. It was led by S/Sgt Gladys M. Woodard (later
Borkowski; aka “Woodie,” retired from the USAF as M/Sgt in 1963) who was one
of the original Auxiliaries of the WAAC to arrive at Slocum in mid-1943. At the
time this was recorded she was Assistant Drillmaster with the Provisional Training
Center. Notice some distinctive lyrics (almost all of them differ from the Felice
version) — and the only direct reference to Slocum itself. However the refrain is

25 The reference is to characters in the syndicated comic strip Dick Tracy. The Brow, a Nazi naval spy, had
a meteoric rise and fall lasting only four months, from 22 May to 26 Sept. 1944. Gravel Gertie first appears
3 Sept. The Brow is temporarily blinded; Gertie (a hag, smitten by once again having a man in her life)
shelters him & nurses him back to health; he may be on the verge of reciprocating her love but is killed
when Tracy causes him to fall through a window and die, impaled on an American flag. Therefore, this
verse cannot be original with Duckworth’s Mar. 1944 bivouac; but it must also be one of the older ones, its
form fixed sometime in Sept. 1944. There is an interesting reference to this in the Casual News, 21 Sept.
1944, p. 8, “PTC Det. News:” “. . . The boys sure wish that Dick Tracy would catch the “Brow” so that
Tec 5 Ray Danitz could get his mind back to work on other subjects.”

26 M/Sgt ret. Gladys Woodard Borkowski (see below) recalls that particularly at first, male troops at
Slocum felt threatened by being replaced by women (interview, Sept. 2005), and indeed at first there was
command resistance as well; though in the end Col. Lentz proclaimed, “They came; I saw; they
conquered” (correspondence, Feb. 2006). (Cf. the general history in Bettie J. Morden, The Women’s
Army Corps, 1945-1978 [DC: USGPO, 1990].) This verse may express — or maybe just self-parody?

— that anxiety. Command at the time took very seriously the prospect that rear echelon troops felt they
were not really contributing to the war effort. Consider however that probably they are not questioning the
purpose of the war effort itself — whereas during Vietnam similar verses had the significance, what in the
hell ARE we fighting for?

exactly the same as the Felice version, and (see below) is delivered in a similarly
distinctive monotone.

“At-ten-HUT!

F ohward-HARCH!

Hut-hoot-hip-horp,

You had a good home but you left (you’re right!)

Jody 27 was there when you left (you’re right!)

Jody was there when you left (you’re right!)

[Refrain]

Sound off (one, two!)

Sound off (three, four!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

Heads and eyes are off the ground
Forty inches, cover down
[Refrain]

The heads are up, the chests are out
The arms are swinging; in cadence, count:

[Refrain]

The WACs and WAVEs 28 they are the best,

They always pass the Colonel’s tests,

[Refrain]

Cannot beat a Slocum lass,

All the looks and all the class,

[Refrain]

27 This sounds pretty clearly like “Jody” not “Shorty.” Woodie adds (personal correspondence, May 2006)
an interesting observation, never yet to my knowledge recorded elsewhere: she doesn’t remember Shorty
but there was a lot of latrine graffiti that “Jody was here.”

28 In some versions, this is the First Platoon — the one missing from the Felice version? See above.

Help the boys across the pond,

Lend a hand and buy a bond,

[Refrain]

We wouldn’t mind this Army life,

If we could be a soldier’s wife,
[Refrain]

WACs are queens of the land,

They never go ‘round biting the Hand,
[Refrain]

Mopping, scrubbing, every morn,
{Keeps our beds from being warm},
[Refrain]

If it ain’t GI, it won’t get by,

You’ll get a gig, then you’ll sigh,
[Refrain]

[?], HALT!”

First, notice the structure of this first fixed version. It begins, and closes, with a
standard set of commands: Forward, MARCH; Company, HALT. After the initial
command Forward, MARCH, the drillmaster sets the pace: hup, two, three, four. Then
begins the Duckworth chant, proper. (Notice that the drillmaster does NOT use the Lentz
system! The troops do NOT vocalize these commands, but merely follow them in the
traditional, pre-Lentz, manner. Again, the Duckworth chant is not merely an application
of the Lentz systenn.)

In the chant itself, the predominant pattern of call and response is that the
drillmaster calls two verses by himself, without response. Then the refrain consists of
three verses of call (and response), in which the response consists simply of numbers, in
the following pattern:

[Refrain:]

C (D)

C (F)

G (D, F, D - F!).

In the Felice version, this pattern is repeated 3 times, then 5 times, then 4 times.
(This 3-5-4 sequence may well be arbitrary. Indeed, one could punctuate the pattern in
any number of ways without affecting the sense of the cadence.) In between, it is
punctuated by a different pattern: two verses of call (and response: you’re right!)
followed by two different verses of call (and response; the same response as before) with
no refrain between each pair, in the following pattern:

A (B!)

C (B!)

C (B!).

Second, notice the relation of this version both to Col. Lentz’ cadence system and
to Duckworth’s improvisation. This one is both much more and much less structured. It
is more structured than Duckworth’s (presumably) pure improvisation on the road back to
Slocum from Ardsley; it is less structured than Lentz’ system (whereby the soldier
cooperates and presumably, internalizes, stock commands from the IDR). This version
has the troops merely repeating the stereotyped cadence that otherwise only the
drillmaster alone would voice.

Third, notice the relation to the Jody. This version actually, introduces the word
“Jody;” though, as noted, in the Woodard version it sound like “Jody” whereas in the
Felice version the word may only be “Shorty.” But in any case the character Jody is not
yet fully developed: sure, Jody was there back home when you left for war. (And,
why?) But he didn’t yet have your Cadillac, nor your mama, nor your telephone nor
your girl & gone. That would come later.

Fourth, this earliest version differs from all known later versions in that the
drillmaster (in both Felice and Woodard versions) delivers the call entirely in monotone;
the initial responses are also monotone; and only the last response (D, F, D - F!) has any
melody. In subsequent versions all of the responses as well as the call are melodic. (But
after all it is the Duckworth Chant not the Duckworth Song.)

Clearly, some of the early lyrics were not meant for the Ages. The lines about
The Hand and the golden egg don’t transfer well; the Brow was universally known but
didn’t survive even Hitler; the lines about Second & Third platoons are, well, just lame.
The WAC lyrics make no sense if voiced by male troops. No doubt the same is true
about many other lines improvised through they years and now forgotten: they are highly
context-specific. The enduring core running from this early fixed version of the
Duckworth Chant is threefold: left-right (naturally); the counting; and, of course.
Shorty/Jody — the name if not the fully-developed character.

B Side Cut 2: Pvt. James Tyus & Rehabilitation Class

The Felice and Woodard versions are substantially the same in meter and
monotone, only the content of the verses varying. Also on the B side but markedly

different in several ways is the Tyus version. The lyrics are a bit more difficult to
interpret, due to a heavy accent on the part of the drillmaster.

In the Tyus version, the meter is more complicated: in the verses, the call is
melodic, the response monotone; then in the refrain, both call and response are melodic.
The refrain comes first and is repeated; then follow two verses, then an unusual group of
sixteen unbroken verses before the next refrain, which is slightly different than the first;
and there is even another alternate refrain. Then toward the end, whereas the response
had previously been only “you’re right!” now the call is one verse and the response is
another whole verse. There is little overlap in the lyrics with the other 2 versions. There
are distinct lyrics referring to Hitler and the ETO which don’t occur in any other known
version before or after; they’ve been to the ETO, the war is winding down, they’re
looking forward to going home. They not only count to four, they count once to eight.
By this time Jody has definitely got your girl & gone. So in the Tyus version, for the
first time in the evolution of the Duckworth chant, Jody not only has his name but his
character. (And his days back home are numbered!) Further almost the entire chant is
melodic — closer to the later versions than to the Felice and Woodard versions.

“Comp’ny

Ten-HUT!

Forward, HARCH!

Hut-hoop-hip-horp,

[Refrain]

Sound off (one, two!)

Sound off (three, four!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

[Refrain]

Head and eyes off the ground,

Swing them anns and cover down,

[Refrain]

Hed good home, an you left (you’re right!)

Wan’ go back buttcha can’t (you’re right!)

All goin’ home some day (you’re right!)

Ain’t we gonna have our way? (you’re right!)

Back home they’re havin’ fun (you’re right!)

{Costumed just for the run?} (you’re right!

I knew you boys was {bley?} (you’re right!)

And Hitler made his last {play?} (you’re right!)

He walked through in Berlin (you’re right!)

An they get ol’ Hitler again (you’re right!)

Then he walked out on the square (you’re right!)

An he eat outta the best joint there (you’re right!)

Then he knock on Hitler’s door (you’re right!)

ToT him he cain’t fight no more (you’re right!)

When we go home we’ll tell (you’re right!)

How we give oT Hitler hell (you’re right!)

[Alternate refrain]

Sound off (one, two!)

Sound off (three, four!)

By your left (two — threefour!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

We was over in the ETO 29
We learned to count from one to fo’

[Refrain]

Now we back here in the States
We can count from one to eight

[Another alternate refrain]

Sound off (one, two!)

Sound off (three, four!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, five, six — seveneight!)

Ain’t no use in goin’ home
(Jody’s got your gal & gone)

Hey last night I had a dream
(Jody had my gal Arlene)

If I die in a combat zone
(Box me up and send me home)

[Alternate refrain]

Sound off (one, two!)

Sound off (three, four!)

By your left (two — threefour!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

29 This is interesting because for most of the war, green soldiers at Slocum anticipated shipment to the
ETO; clearly these men have gone in the other direction, back to Slocum. This suggests that the Tyus
version was specific to the rehabilitation classes in 1945.

Company, HALT!”

II. Sound Off

The second fixed version, cinematic:
Battleground (1949)

Directed by William Wellman, Produced by Dore Schary

III. Sound Off

The third fixed version, literary:

By Willie Lee Duckworth
(copyright 1950 Bernard Lentz;

This is the first published version of lyrics and music, five years after the first
recorded versions. It is complex in several ways. First, it differs substantially from the
sheet music published later, in 1961, both music and lyrics. Second, there is one set of
lyrics only, twenty verses attributed to Duckworth which are close to the combined lyrics
of the 1945 V-Disc versions. Third, there follows then lyrics (merely the first four verses
of the preceding) and music recorded by Vaughn Monroe (though in fact Monroe records
these four in a different order, and adds a fifth verse from the same set; see below, IV).
Duckworth is given credit, though the legend appears: “From ‘The Cadence System of
Teaching Close Order Drill’ by Colonel Bernard Lentz, USA Retired, a Drill Manual
published by The Military Service Publishing Company, Harrisburg, Pa.”

IV. Sound Off

The fourth fixed version, literary & orchestral:

Sound Off (The Duckworth Chant)

Vaughn Monroe & his Orchestra

This is the published version, five years after the first recorded version.

Related — but different! Lead-in, more or less the same. The first verse about
chests & arms, and refrain, absolutely the same. Likewise, second verse about eeny &
co., and refrain. Skip the idiosycratic verse about biting the hand, still the same.

Hep, hup, hep, hup
Hep, hup, hep, hup,

The heads are up, the chests are out
The amis are swingin’ in cadence count,

[Refrain]

Sound off (Sound off!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

Eeny meeny miney moe

Let’s go back and count some mo’

[Refrain]

[Brass Interlude, repeated]

I had a good home but I left (you’re right!)

Jody was there when I left (you’re right!)

[Refrain]

I left my gal a way out West
I thought this Anny life was best
Now she’s someone else’s wife
And I’ll be marchin’ the rest of my life

[Refrain 2]

Sound off (one, two)

Sound off (three, four)

Ah 1 (two, three-four)

Ah 2 (two, three-four)

(one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

The Captain rides in a jeep (You’re right!)

The Sergeant rides in a truck (You’re right!)

The General rides in a limousine

But we’re just out of luck (You’re right!)

[Refrain 3]

Sound off (music only)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

[Brass interlude, twice]

(Hep, hup, hep, hup)

The heads are up, the chests are out
The amis are swingin’ in cadence count,
[Refrain]

Eeny meeny miney moe
Let’s go back and count some mo’
[Refrain 3]

(One, two — threefour!)

Company -

(One, two — threefour!)

(One, two — threefour!)
halt!

(One, two — threefour!)

V. Sound Off

The fifth fixed version, cinematic:
Sound Off! (1952)

Dir Blake Edwards

VI. Sound Off

The sixth fixed version, literary:

By Willie Lee Duckworth & Bernard Lentz
(copyright 1950 Bernard Lentz;

1950, 1960 & 1961, Shapiro & Bernstein, 666 5 th Ave, NY 19)

Related to both the 1945 and 1950 versions — but different! Lead-in, more or
less the same. The first verse about chests & arms, and refrain, absolutely the same.
Likewise, second verse about eeny & co., and refrain. Skip the idiosycratic verse about
biting the hand, still the same.

But now, as in the post-1945 versions, your girl is no longer waiting. But Jody is
gone. Instead, Alvin’s got your girl — and your sister! Not yet your mama, not yet your
Cadillac.

“Hup! - two, three, four,

Hup! - two, three, four,

The heads are up and the chests are out,

The anns are swinging; Cadence, count:

[Refrain]

Sound off (one, two) You mean Sound off (three, four)
Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

Eeny meeny miney moe

Let’s go back and count some more,

[Refrain]

Sound off (one, two) Let us Sound off (three, four)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

Oh you had a good home and you left (you’re right!)

And you wan-na go home but you can’t (you’re right!)

Now you think the gal that you left (you’re right!)

Is waiting for you but she ain’t (that’s right!)

Now Sound Off (one, two)

Oh you sound off (three, four)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

Hup! - two, three, four,

Ain’t no use in going home,

Alvin’s got your gal and gone,

Ain’t no use in feeling blue,

Alvin’s got your sister too.

Now Sound Off (one, two)

Now you sound off (three, four)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)”

This was the version recorded by Titus Turner in a soul/R&B version, muted
wailing sax, in 1961. (It was his greatest lifetime hit.) It uses some of the original
lyrics, adds a bit from the 3 rd recorded (Tyus) version of 1945 (“you wan-na go home but
you can’t”), and of course substitutes Alvin for Jody. (Turner, incidentally, was
stationed at Slocum in 1954.)

Mickey Katz recorded a Yiddish version.

VII. Comparison with Later Versions

There are many, many different versions which have been given over the years.
Not surprising; the Jody is after all improvisational. No doubt many of impromptu
versions have been lost. But many have been preserved and catalogued, both in print and
over the Web. 30

The first difference which stands out is that the 1945 recorded version is given in
monotone while later versions have a melody.

A second difference is that later the rhyming pattern is more elaborated, and the
call-and-response changes. Consider the following (one of the less scatological
examples in use at Fort Gordon during the height of the Vietnam war):

Heidi, Heidi, Heidi: Ho’! (Heidi, Heidi, Heidi: Ho’!)

Will he? Will he? Will he? Whoa! (Will he? Will he? Will he? Whoa!),

Am I right or wrong? (You’re right!)

Am I weak or strong? (You’re right!)

[Refrain]

Sound off (one, two)

Hit it again (three, four)

Bring/Break it on down (one, two, three, four, one, two — threefour!)

Here the pattern becomes:

A (A)

B (B)

C (D)

D (D)

E(F)

G(H)

30 There is an impressive collection in Sandee Shatter Johnson, op. cit. Other representative samples are to
be found at http://www.gruntsmilitarv.com/cadence/ioumal.cgi . The often-cited loriryan collection at
http://users.erols.com/loriryan/cadence.html seems now to be offline, we hope just temporarily. Soundbites
of cadences from the Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket are on http://www.moviesounds.com/fmi.html and
http://www.orizzontikubrickiani.it/Download.html .

I (F, G, F - G!)

In this case the whole Jody, not just the refrain, is call-and-response; the first two
responses just repeat the drillmaster’s call, but call-and-response is not just limited to the
refrain.

The version in Full Metal Jacket.

WWII soldiers marched (120 steps per minute). They may have marched double¬
time (180 steps per minute). They did not jog. (Gen. James Gavin invented military
jogging, to train himself as one of the original airborne infantry. But he did it in secret on
the backroads of West Point; Coffman, The Regulars, p. x.) Some say since Vietnam
at least the Jody has been used for jogging rather than marching
(http://www.hardscrabblefarm.com/ww2/cadence calls.htm)

VII. Limits and Extent of the Jody Call

By the nature of military life, involving as it does routine and isolation, soldiers
get bored. (One classic definition of infantry life is: long stretches of boredom
punctuated by episodes of sheer terror.) One perennial response to boredom has been to
sing; how else to account for the curious term “barracks ballad?” Bandstands &
gazebos (parallel to interest in sheet music before recordings). Gringos from Green
Grow. Civil War. Hence the skepticism that the Jody is really an innovation from WWII
rather than just the continuation of longer-standing trends and traditions.

Training centers rather than permanent posts?

Eclipse in 1950’s?

Chaplains?

Vietnam era.

At least one anecdote about captain busted back because his troops sang off-color

Jodies.

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Full text of "The Duckworth Chant, Sound Off, & the Jody: Origins and Evolution, 1944-1952"

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